In 1993 Jolente De Keersmaeker and Damiaan De Schrijver, together with Julien Schoenaerts, created Gewoon Ingewikkeld, based on Einfach Kompliziert by Thomas Bernhard. It was inevitable that Bernhard would continue to be one of STAN’s fellow travellers. Now the theatre company presents three Bernhard adaptations as a trilogy: a true Bernhard marathon that is around six hours long.

History is written by winners. Including all the lies, chance encounters, and accidents de parcours. With this realization in mind, Jan Lauwers and Needcompany travel through time by way of the family trees of all the members. After an international tour – and being selected for the TheatreFestival 2016 – The blind poet is returning to the place where it premiered: the Kaaitheater.

Elfriede Jelinek wrote Die Schutzbefohlenen in 2013 as a reaction to the increasingly desperate refugee problem in Europe. Her text has proved to be more than prophetic: all the images that are now burnt into our memories she minutely calls to life years before the actual events. Guy Cassiers matches Jelinek’s torrent of words with images and with four dancers in a choreography by Maud Le Pladec.

In Cinema Dialogue, Monika Gintersdorfer and Knut Klaßen critically examine the United Nations’ ostensibly apolitical Millennium Development Goals. They juxtapose the universalism of the UN programme with the local reality of urban development in Kinshasa between 2000 and the present day.

Experience what lies at the root of human contact, and how a group can come together in a very direct way. To look at one another without speaking is highly intense. This encounter is based on the annual meeting of Inuit leaders, which is conducted without speaking.